Shirley

I just finished this lovely story by Charlotte Bronte. Not easy to follow along at first, it grows interest and depth as it plods on until you are caught up in the remaining chapters, eager to know how in the world it can take someone so long to propose to the girl he loves?! It lacks the poetic, gripping style of Jane Eyre and the powerful message of the epic Villette, but it is a lightheartedly romantic story with a sweet ending - this from a Bronte is novelty enough to induce an interest if you've always thought of them as storytellers of dark, depressing romances. You would be right, by the way, but you would have to exclude this story from that label, for it stands on its own - if not for the narrative, then assuredly for its testament that Charlotte Bronte was indeed capable of writing outside of her genre.